LAND OF THE DEAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 11, 6 February 1909, Page 3

LAND OF THE DEAD.

ARCiIAEOLOti'KJAIj IiESEAiiCU IN PERU. PEOPLES OF THE PAST. VISITING' SCIENTISTS INTEREST--IXU SToity, \ isiting Wellington lit present is l)r. F. W. Vollniaiin, JJ.Sc., win. off mid on loi tin; past live years lias Ijeen engaged in archaeological research in Peru. This is lii, "oil'" season. Owing to the climate ill which liis researches are conducted, it becomes imperative for him to take 11 trip abroad occasionally. There was an, extra reason for quitting work two months ago, in that he had been bitten in tile arm by a poisonous spider, when J7'2 miles across a barren desert from the nearest railway station. This was in Southern Peru, where there is not a t'w or a vestige of herbage to cheer the view, a;id where none of the streams troiu the suo\v-toi»peil Amies are permitted to reach the sea, so precious .'.s the water and absolutely needful for irrigation purposes. At the time of this mishap the doctor imagined that something much worse than a poisonous insect had attacked iiiui. There is a par- | ticularly repulsive disease nil Live to the country called viruga, by its description a form of leprosy, aml it was in deadly fear that lie hail fallen a victim to this dread allliction that spurred him to cover the 172 miles on horseback in 1!)

hours to lea, and tliem-e by train to Limn, where his arm was attended to ami his fears of a worse fate allayed. Peru is favored among archaeologists because what is known of its fascinating history opens up illimitable lields lot scientific. speculation, and 110 man can do research worli there for Jive years on end without becoming known .to the world of serious thought, Some of the evidences of l)i, Vollnmmii'ii arduous toil are to be found to-day in the Peabodv Museum, Boston, in 'Munich, flermany, the Carnegie Museum a-t Pittsburg, and the Field 31useum at Chicago, and not a few of the Peruvian contributions made through Dr. GafTron to the Natural History Museum of New York were discovered by the visitor. In reply to a request, Dr. Vollmann told how he set about his research work in the! strange country he has made his homo j for five years past.

DOWN AMONG THE I>EAD MUX. "From what I have learned l>y research and enquiry, I know pretty well where the ancient cities of the lucas were located, and after a thorough survey of the country by riding .over it. Then I organise my party of Indian diggers and attendants, and institute a water-service between the spot and the nearest source of supply. This is imperative—or you die. On the great western slope the land is absolutely barren rock and sand. It never rains, and there is not a single tree for hundreds of miles at a stretch. Having located my city, I probe for the cemetery, for it is in the graves of the lucas that the best evidences of their advanced civilisation is found. I can tell with a 12-foot probe (a pointed iron bar) i whether the ground is virgin soil—that 'is to say, whether it has ever been dis-' turbed or not. This might take some time, but every city had its burialground, and it is 011 ly a matter of bunting for it. Having found it, 1 set the Indians probing all about, and wherever the point strikes what appears to be something foreign to the soil, I set them to dig." "The Incas were a very fine people., living in a very advanced stale of civilisation—sis advanced, for instance, ns the Kgyptians, who mummified their dead. They buried their dead, not in a dignified sarcophagus, but in great earthenware jars, in which the. corpse sat with his knees ir> to hi-- chin, wound round tuul round with brilliantly-colored and wonderfully-wov - •.! f, i. J

"When 1 Jind our pottery rcoflins, tile Indians v,: : ! n .descend into the grave until I have touched the body and so frightened the evil spirits 11 way. I *sß A CIjOSH .H'gr.UNTAXCK WITH JMWLMIKS. "I have handled many of these mummies, and it is wonderful how well preserved tliev are. This is'owing to the fact that it never rains, and everything is perfectly dry. The skin, an ugly brown color, is shrivelled into the hone*, but the strange wrappings retain their brilliant colors marvellously, Tt was customary to bury the weapons and household goods with the deceased, and it is by the evidence of the jars and drinking-cups that one can form an estimate jf the advanced state of civilisa-' l!«n these people enjoyed away back about the time of Christ. The pottery I i«, beautifully modelled, and the designs ' traced upon and burnt into them are| most, artistic, so much so that when my lot was exhibited at Munich the artists used to come and copy the designs. They were so very old that they were quite new. I have found cups of gold, crowns, armlets, etc., beaten into ail mannev of designs, some very beautiful, and others most obscene, and 1 have come to the conclusion that the figures were first cut out in relief on a solid piece of hard wood, and the gold was beaten round them and then burnt out." Did yon have to dig deep to reach tho eollins? "It all depends; sometimes only a yard, and sometimes twentv yards if the encouragement was there,"

HW )l!l- Til K IXCAS. "It was iii digging ileep Unit I came across traces of a yet older civilisation, but of .this I have said little so fur. These were evidences of tile X.ucas, who are said [n have lived in I Vru 3UOO li.C. Their pottery and the designs on them indicate an entirely different strata of civilisation to that of the incas. There again the handiwork was exquisitely bountiful, and quite dilferciit from anything modern. •''The Chimin, a coastal pcoplf, who were conquered hy the Incus, arc miother dead ran' of t'evn, but more It known of the Incas than anv of tlm races that have disappeared in that eouiitry. They were a wonderful people. To sliow you what road-liuililci's tliev were, it instated that tliev etuiltl travel from Callao to tjnito in sevea days, a journey which ninv occupies thrive weeks. They iiad no means of writing messages —llO caligrapliie method', hut used to communicate one with another with knotted string-, called the 'i|iii|>|m.' I lost one 'of my last specimens through n monk in l.inia teliing me that he fouht read the 'tnii|ijm.' He git possession of it, anil I have never seen lilm since, [ am going hack aliont -Imiv to take u|> my work where 1 jcfl it, hut I don't think I will undertake any further ex-1 petlitions, as it is ruining my liealth.'"— i | Wellington Dominion,